Leonid Razvozzhayev

Leonid Mikhaylovich Razvozzhayev (; born 12 June 1973 in Angarsk) is a member of the political coalition Left Front and an aide to Ilya Ponomaryov, a member of the Russian Parliament. Razvozzhayev was allegedly kidnapped from Kyiv, Ukraine in October 2012 by Russian security forces.

Criminal charges Razovzzhayev is an aide to the opposition MP Ilya V. Ponomaryov.

In October 2012, the pro-government news channel NTV aired a documentary titled Anatomy Of A Protest 2, which accused Razvozzhayev of meeting with Sergei Udaltsov (another opposition leader of the Left Front), Georgian politician Givi Targamadze, and Georgian consul to Moldova Mikhail Iashvili for the purpose of discussing strategies of the opposition movement in Russia, its financing schemes, and a plan for overthrowing President Vladimir Putin. The documentary purported to show a low-quality secret recording of a meeting between Targamadze and Russian activists, which NTV stated had been given to its staff "on the street by a stranger of Georgian nationality". The Investigative Committee of Russia (SK) stated it had found the footage to be genuine, while bloggers debated its validity, stating that at least one fragment of footage was used twice with different voice-overs. and Razvozzhayev, Udaltsov, and Konstantin Lebedev, an assistant of Udaltsov's, were charged with "plotting mass disturbances". Razvozzhayev stated in a later interview that he had been held in a house in handcuffs and legchains for two days, and denied food, water, and bathroom access; Amnesty International reported that Razvozzhayev was also being denied access to a lawyer of his choice. He was released in April 2017.

Reactions United Nations officials stated that they were "deeply concerned about [Razvozzhayev's] disappearance".

The alleged kidnapping was described by the BBC as causing "outrage among human rights groups". Amnesty International called for Razvozzhayev's allegations of torture and abduction to be "promptly, thoroughly, effectively and independently investigated"; Human Rights Watch also called for an investigation, stating that "For an asylum seeker to simply vanish while lodging his asylum claims and then reappear in the country he fled is profoundly shocking". The Public Observer Commission, a Russian human rights NGO, met with Razvozzhayev and "expressed grave concerns that Russian authorities were returning to Stalinist methods of suppressing dissent".

In Russia, Vladimir Burmatov, an MP from Putin's United Russia party, called on Razvozzhayev's employer, Ponomaryov, to resign from the State Duma for his association with Razvozzhayev. Anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny and other opposition figures responded by calling for a freeze on the foreign assets of "the masterminds and perpetrators of the abduction, torture and illegal criminal repression against the opposition". On 27 October, Navalny, Udaltsov, and Ilya Yashin were arrested while attempting to join a Moscow protest on Razvozzhayev's behalf and charged with violating public order.

The alleged abduction also became a political issue in Ukraine, where the interior ministry said that Razvozzhayev appeared to have been abducted by "secret services". The Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc of former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko accused President Viktor Yanukovych of allowing the alleged kidnapping in exchange for Russian backing in the parliamentary election upcoming on 28 October.